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Ellen Griswold: I honestly don’t think we’re going to find the Grand Canyon on this road.Clark: Jesus, it’s only the biggest God-damn hole in the world.Aunt Edna: Clark, watch your language!Clark: Make that the second biggest. ………. and so went the quotes from the movie American Vacation (1983).

We decided to take an extra day to take in this wonder of the world. We stopped overnight outside of Flagstaff and stayed at a rest stop and the next morning headed off to the Grand Canyon. 7400 feet above sea level and $25 per vehicle to enter the park. Like the fees at Banff and Jasper.

Off loading the motorcycle in order to see as much as possible worked well. Although they do have frequent shuttles to and from sites the motorcycle proved very adept at helping us finding parking spaces which are at a premium and allowing us to see the complete village and South Rim in under 4 hours. However, to do this wonder of the world justice you should take the train ride and or the mule ride to the bottom. Helicopter (approx. $275 Cdn per person for 40 minutes) and aircraft rides (approx. $165 Cdn per person for 40 minutes) were available.

Our budget didn’t allow that but just the view alone and being there was really breath taking. Tracy did really well with being afraid of heights and no real fences or gates to prevent you from taking a tumble if you choose to get too close. The park ranger told us that they rescue approx. 250 hikers, tourists and rafters per year.

It was 6 p.m. by the time we loaded the bike back up and headed to Williams some 60 miles away and a chilly nights stay at the KOA on Hwy 40.